AC/DC: For those about to rock, we salute iTunes

Come on, come on, listen to the money talk.

Enlarge / Anyone taking the highway to hell today found it must have frozen over.

Apple announced Monday morning that AC/DC has made all of its 16 studio albums, four live records, and three compilations available on the iTunes Store. The long-time digital distribution holdouts have had an apparent change of heart, selling individual songs for $1.29 a piece and a complete collection of every available AC/DC recording for $149.99.

AC/DC was initially skeptical of the iTunes Store, going so far as to boycott digital downloads altogether. "Maybe I'm just being old-fashioned, but this iTunes, God bless 'em, it's going to kill music if they're not careful," lead singer Brian Johnson, then 61, told Reuters in 2008.

The band had refused to release its album Black Ice on iTunes, or any other download service, suggesting digital distribution was all about money and had little to do with art. "I'm sure they're just doing it all in the interest of making as much... cash as possible. Let's put it this way, it's certainly not for the... love, let's get that out of the way, right away," Johnson said.

That's an odd stance to take for a band that lamented in 1976 that it "ain't no fun waiting 'round to be a millionaire."

But the last five years of plummeting CD sales have apparently caused a change of heart for the aging Australian rockers. All 23 of their albums, including classics like Back in Black and Highway to Hell, 1992's Live, and newer albums like Black Ice and the compilation soundtrack for Iron Man 2, are available to anyone with the money, honey. You can even buy all 16 studio albums in one fell swoop for $99.99, or add all the compilations and live albums for $149.99.

All the albums have been mastered for iTunes, which according to Apple ensures "the music is delivered to listeners with increased audio fidelity"—perhaps proving once and for all that rock and roll ain't no noise pollution.

Whew what double talk. All I can hear is "Apple wanted too much for my music." "Not doing it for the love..." We'll they wouldn't be doing it for free, pal. Take your third and get back in your champagne tub.

I'm more curious about this "mastered for iTunes" than the artist being on iTunes. What that says to me is "mastered to sound better on our shitty devices with the worst sound quality in the industry". I'm curious to know what the music sounds like on other devices.

The band had refused to release its album Black Ice on iTunes, or any other download service, suggesting digital distribution was all about money and had little to do with art. "I'm sure they're just doing it all in the interest of making as much... cash as possible. Let's put it this way, it's certainly not for the... love, let's get that out of the way, right away," Johnson said.

Or you know, how and what the fans want as a product in this day and age. Apple wanted iTunes to sell iPods. Customers wanted mp3s. Never understood how these older groups(and Labels, which took them awhile) do not understand why Napster was so big.

AC/DC is in the music business, not the music friendship. Let them sell their products as they wish.

As for Disney and Star Wars, it just depends on what they do with it. An Ewok ride at Disneyland is nothing to complain about ... just don't ride it. Making Jar-Jar the lead in the next movie is something to complain about.

You... you mean that this most recent means of media distribution isn't going to completely destroy music as we know it?

What a concept!

Debatable. Quality music is still being produced (and easier than ever before) and is easily distributed, greatly increasing the availability. On the other hand, the experience is totally different. Barely anyone goes to a record store anymore to check out music and browse cover art while chatting with other music lovers. When CDs took over vinyl, you saw a lot less of extra goodies included (linear notes, artwork, photography, etc..) and with downloads you don't get anything. Sitting down with headphones and looking at everything while you listen is a wonderful way to enjoy an album.

I'm more curious about this "mastered for iTunes" than the artist being on iTunes. What that says to me is "mastered to sound better on our shitty devices with the worst sound quality in the industry". I'm curious to know what the music sounds like on other devices.

It has absolutely nothing to do with "mastering to sound better on our shitty devices" and everything to do with making subtle adjustments to account for the psychoacoustic model used in current AAC encoders and to prevent unexpected clipping. We tested the process with two extremely skeptical mastering and recording engineers, both of whom became convinced there's merit in the process.

I'm more curious about this "mastered for iTunes" than the artist being on iTunes. What that says to me is "mastered to sound better on our shitty devices with the worst sound quality in the industry". I'm curious to know what the music sounds like on other devices.

My understanding is that it is mastered with the idiosyncrasies of the AAC compression that iTunes uses in mind. Every format has different strengths and weaknesses, and you have to account for that in the mastering process. For example, vinyl masters sound the way they do because of limitations vinyl has in reproducing sound, such as low frequency bass causing the needle to jump out of the groove, and CDs eventually had to be remastered to play to the strengths of that format.

You... you mean that this most recent means of media distribution isn't going to completely destroy music as we know it?

What a concept!

Debatable. Quality music is still being produced (and easier than ever before) and is easily distributed, greatly increasing the availability. On the other hand, the experience is totally different. Barely anyone goes to a record store anymore to check out music and browse cover art while chatting with other music lovers. When CDs took over vinyl, you saw a lot less of extra goodies included (linear notes, artwork, photography, etc..) and with downloads you don't get anything. Sitting down with headphones and looking at everything while you listen is a wonderful way to enjoy an album.

Some people loved that experience, and you can't get it with iTunes.

I've gotten booklets (pdf format?) with several of my album purchases on Amazon; other than 99% of the market not caring there's no reason they couldn't distribute the filler with digital downloads.

The only thing of value I ever saw in the cd liners were lyric listings; and you can get them via Google now; might be useful to add to the music file metadata.

If they didn't care about the money then they would have made their music available to all digital distributors. They obviously had to finally become fine with the digital distribution idea first, but once they did they looked for the highest bidder.

I was frustrated a few months ago that no AC/DC studio albums were available on Rhapsody (or anywhere). But you can go to youtube and search for "AC/DC complete album" and, as the name implies, you get all of their complete albums.

The music is already available digitally, without pirating. I wonder why AC/DC finally woke up to that fact.

You... you mean that this most recent means of media distribution isn't going to completely destroy music as we know it?

What a concept!

Debatable. Quality music is still being produced (and easier than ever before) and is easily distributed, greatly increasing the availability. On the other hand, the experience is totally different. Barely anyone goes to a record store anymore to check out music and browse cover art while chatting with other music lovers. When CDs took over vinyl, you saw a lot less of extra goodies included (linear notes, artwork, photography, etc..) and with downloads you don't get anything. Sitting down with headphones and looking at everything while you listen is a wonderful way to enjoy an album.

You... you mean that this most recent means of media distribution isn't going to completely destroy music as we know it?

What a concept!

Debatable. Quality music is still being produced (and easier than ever before) and is easily distributed, greatly increasing the availability. On the other hand, the experience is totally different. Barely anyone goes to a record store anymore to check out music and browse cover art while chatting with other music lovers. When CDs took over vinyl, you saw a lot less of extra goodies included (linear notes, artwork, photography, etc..) and with downloads you don't get anything. Sitting down with headphones and looking at everything while you listen is a wonderful way to enjoy an album.

Some people loved that experience, and you can't get it with iTunes.

I've gotten booklets (pdf format?) with several of my album purchases on Amazon; other than 99% of the market not caring there's no reason they couldn't distribute the filler with digital downloads.

The only thing of value I ever saw in the cd liners were lyric listings; and you can get them via Google now; might be useful to add to the music file metadata.

<Sarcasm: Forget this new fangaled faddy mp3 thing-of-a-miggie, I still listen to AC/DC on 8 track and Vinyl Sarcasm/>

I actually first listened to most of AC/DC's 70s catalog on 8 track, despite coming of age in the early 90s. Back in high school, my first car was a 1979 Olds Delta 88 with a working 8 track. I was over at my retired neighbor's house one day in 1991 and noticed he had a great collection of 70s hard rock 8 tracks, early AC/DC, Van Halen, Aerosmith, and ZZ Top. As I was checking them out, he mentioned that those were his son's and he hadn't touched them in almost a decade, and he said I could have them if I wanted. I took him up on the offer, and wound up with a box full of classic hard rock in my car. It was awesome, despite "Ride On" fading out in the middle because it was split between two tracks due to the length of the song.

Probably not as epic, but the 2CD limited edition (European) release of Demons & Wizards's second album, Touched By the Crimson King, heavily inspired by Stephen King's Dark Tower series, unfolds into a + shape mural of various Dark Tower themes and landmarks. Not quite recent, as it was released in 2005, but still quite awesome. Unfortunately, the gatefold for the 2LP version was not as awesome.

You... you mean that this most recent means of media distribution isn't going to completely destroy music as we know it?

What a concept!

Debatable. Quality music is still being produced (and easier than ever before) and is easily distributed, greatly increasing the availability. On the other hand, the experience is totally different. Barely anyone goes to a record store anymore to check out music and browse cover art while chatting with other music lovers. When CDs took over vinyl, you saw a lot less of extra goodies included (linear notes, artwork, photography, etc..) and with downloads you don't get anything. Sitting down with headphones and looking at everything while you listen is a wonderful way to enjoy an album.

Some people loved that experience, and you can't get it with iTunes.

Sure you can. Maybe not with itunes alone, but with itunes and all the other music services you can browse the internet while listening. Not sure if ACDC has an official website, but if not I am sure there are a lot of Fan sites with a lot of the stuff you mention.

You... you mean that this most recent means of media distribution isn't going to completely destroy music as we know it?

What a concept!

Debatable. Quality music is still being produced (and easier than ever before) and is easily distributed, greatly increasing the availability. On the other hand, the experience is totally different. Barely anyone goes to a record store anymore to check out music and browse cover art while chatting with other music lovers. When CDs took over vinyl, you saw a lot less of extra goodies included (linear notes, artwork, photography, etc..) and with downloads you don't get anything. Sitting down with headphones and looking at everything while you listen is a wonderful way to enjoy an album.

Some people loved that experience, and you can't get it with iTunes.

I really do wish that Apple would do something like that with iTunes. It would be trivial for them to do so. If you can tie together album art. You most certainly can link the song to some other photos and artwork.

<Sarcasm: Forget this new fangaled faddy mp3 thing-of-a-miggie, I still listen to AC/DC on 8 track and Vinyl Sarcasm/>

I actually first listened to most of AC/DC's 70s catalog on 8 track, despite coming of age in the early 90s. Back in high school, my first car was a 1979 Olds Delta 88 with a working 8 track. I was over at my retired neighbor's house one day in 1991 and noticed he had a great collection of 70s hard rock 8 tracks, early AC/DC, Van Halen, Aerosmith, and ZZ Top. As I was checking them out, he mentioned that those were his son's and he hadn't touched them in almost a decade, and he said I could have them if I wanted. I took him up on the offer, and wound up with a box full of classic hard rock in my car. It was awesome, despite "Ride On" fading out in the middle because it was split between two tracks due to the length of the song.

I added the sarcasm notation about the whole comment about not only about the 8 track, but calling mp3 new fangaled to point out the fact that people were only talking about AC/DC on CD and forgetting the whole tape, 8 track, and album era.

As much as I love AC/DC, I don't care for iTunes. Every time I have to help my family members with iTunes and their associated products, I die a little on the inside. That being said, its not like AC/DC even needs or wants the money. They got more than enough to live comfortably. The people that want the money is the publishers.

You... you mean that this most recent means of media distribution isn't going to completely destroy music as we know it?

What a concept!

What is far more dire is the fact that most of their meaningful works are old enough that they should be in public domain by now. If they are running low on cash, they're far better off touring and selling overpriced tickets to their aging core fan base.

In terms of "recorded media" they have probably already squeezed that turnip dry.

As much as I love AC/DC, I don't care for iTunes. Every time I have to help my family members with iTunes and their associated products, I die a little on the inside. That being said, its not like AC/DC even needs or wants the money. They got more than enough to live comfortably. The people that want the money is the publishers.

Don't blame Apple for your lack of interest (or is it prejudice) coloring your experience. It's quite functional for people who use it. Your experience, though, is paralleled in my life. Every time someone asks me to hook up a Windows PC to a WIFI network, I find my IQ points temporarily dropped about 10 percent by the time I figure out what the settings are, and actually getting them to work.

You... you mean that this most recent means of media distribution isn't going to completely destroy music as we know it?

What a concept!

Debatable. Quality music is still being produced (and easier than ever before) and is easily distributed, greatly increasing the availability. On the other hand, the experience is totally different. Barely anyone goes to a record store anymore to check out music and browse cover art while chatting with other music lovers. When CDs took over vinyl, you saw a lot less of extra goodies included (linear notes, artwork, photography, etc..) and with downloads you don't get anything. Sitting down with headphones and looking at everything while you listen is a wonderful way to enjoy an album.

Between AC/DC now selling out to Apple, Star Wars going to Disney, and a number of other stories lately, I feel as if my childhood has officially been monetized and sold to the highest bidder.

Star Wars is considered the big watershed moment when movies stopped being a product in themselves and started being vehicles for the sale of other ancillary stuff, like toys, cereal, lunchboxes, clothing, etc. So Star Wars is the poster-movie of monetization.

AC/DC is a great band, but they've been about the money, always, just like any band who made it remotely big. The people in music who weren't just about the money are all dead. No one remains a celebrity singer or band member for decades without loving the cash.

Our childhoods were always 100% about the money and nothing else, and not even Sesame Street can be considered an exception. Don't fool yourself.

I really do wish that Apple would do something like that with iTunes. It would be trivial for them to do so. If you can tie together album art. You most certainly can link the song to some other photos and artwork.

I LOLed. Maybe Apple could call it, iTunes LP...

It's all about adding some novelty unique to the medium. Huge fold-outs are awesome, but not enough to be worth holding back recording and distribution technology. ITunes LPs are cool in their own way - and far more realistic about how people actually prefer to enjoy their music. Sure, sitting on the floor with an LP jacket and some headphones and all is cool, but nothing stops you from doing the same with a laptop.

Just so long as we're only being nostalgic, without diminishing the tremendous advances we've made in fidelity and convenience...

Between AC/DC now selling out to Apple, Star Wars going to Disney, and a number of other stories lately, I feel as if my childhood has officially been monetized and sold to the highest bidder.

Going by your stream of "logic" AC/DC sold out to wal-mart, tower records, babbages, best buy, circuit city, EVERY PLACE THAT EVER SOLD AN ALBUM EVER. Listing your music on iTunes != selling out. It == selling music.